Court must sit again to hear repossession applications

A HIGH Court judge yesterday expressed regret as she told mortgage holders they would have to return another day to hear applications for repossession of their properties.

Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne told debtors who had been summonsed to the Chancery Court she “had no other choice” as there was not time to hear the full list of applications for repossessions from lending agencies.

The court, which took the unusual step of sitting until 5.30pm, granted 11 orders for repossession out of an initial list of 56 cases, with a further 10 cases the subject of legal motions.

Many of the cases involved loans which were taken out by borrowers in the last four years, a number of which had not seen any repayments for the last two years.

Four of the 11 orders for repossession were granted with the consent of mortgage holders who said they could not repay the loans.

Counsel for GE Capital Woodchester Homeloans was granted an order for possession of a house in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, which was the subject of a €268,000 mortgage in June 2007.

The court heard the repayments were €2,149.93 per month and the first default occurred in September 2008. The loan was now more than €50,000 in arrears and a total of almost €313,000 was owed. Counsel said there had been no payments since June 2009 and “no proposals now” on how to clear the debt.

In another case, KBC Mortgage Bank were granted an order for possession of a property in Navan over which a mortgage of more than €800,000 was advanced in 2005. There had been no payments since March 2008 and arrears now amounted to more then €57,000.

An investor with a number of commercial properties on the Glaslough Road in Monaghan town consented to a possession order in favour of Ulster Bank.

The court was told by counsel for the bank that there were a number of loans covering commercial properties with apartments above. The judge granted a stay of three months amid concern about some of the occupiers of the commercial and residential properties but noted they had all been notified of the proceedings and had the opportunity to come to court.

In a number of cases, the lending agencies said they had very little or no contact from some of the borrowers once things started to go wrong.

In one case, the court heard a loan had been advanced by AIB Mortgage Bank for the purchase of Raheen National School in Co Kerry. Ms Justice Dunne noted the loan of €130,000 had been taken out in 2007, but while it initially went well, there had been no repayments since 2009. Subsequently there had been “no contact good, bad or indifferent” from the borrower. She granted an order for repossession with a four-month stay of execution.

Ms Justice Dunne also granted a temporary extension of an injunction restraining Start Mortgages from acting on an order for repossession of a house where a woman was said to be looking after her ill mother. The judge said she wanted to read affidavits from both sides before she would come to her decision in the case.